Abstract
The safe and reliable performance of advanced fission plants is dependent on the choice of suitable materials and assessment of long-term materials degradation. These materials are degraded by their exposure to high temperatures, irradiation and a corrosive environment, therefore it is necessary to address the issue of long term damage evolution of materials under service exposure in advanced plants. A higher confidence in life-time assessments of these materials requires an understanding of the related physical phenomena on a range of scales from the microscopic level of single defect damage effects all the way up to macroscopic effects. To understand the many different phenomena present, such a study needs to encompass broad time and length scales starting from atomistic descriptions of primary damage formation and ending with a description of bulk property behaviour at the continuum limit. This paper discusses the multi-scale, multi-code simulations and multi-dimensional validation experiments undertaken to understand the mechanical properties of these materials. Such a multiscale modelling and experimental approach is envisaged and will probe beyond currently possible approaches to become a predictive tool in estimating lifetimes and mechanical properties of materials.
